The wit and wisdom of one of our greatest military leaders in a compact, highly readable edition!

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Introduction

Soldier's Testament

Patton's Letter to His Son on D-Day

Patton on Leadership

Patton on God & the Bible

Patton on Conviction & Decision

Patton on Courage & Fear

Patton on Discipline

Patton on Health

Patton on Success

Letters by George S. Patton

"I don't know what a Philadelphia lawyer might say, but I know what I mean by Country. It is the Constitution! 'Just the greatest document ever written by man' according to an English Prime Minister. You know why we serve the Constitution? Simple! Recall what you said when you got your first commission or got a promotion. You take an oath to God 'to support the Constitution against all enemies foreign and domestic.' We are fighting for our great Constitution. We are not fighting for any man, president, senator, congressman nor potentate. This is what I mean by Country."

--General George S. Patton

Adored by many, loathed by some, General George S. Patton, Jr., was one of the most brilliant military strategists in history. War As I Knew It is the personal and candid account of his celebrated, relentless crusade across western Europe during World War II. First published in 1947, this absorbing narrative draws on Patton's vivid memories of battle and his detailed diaries, from the moment the Third Army exploded onto the Brittany Peninsula to the final Allied casualty report. The result is not only a grueling, human account of daily combat and heroic feats - including a riveting look at the Battle of the Bulge - but a valuable chronicle of the strategies and fiery personality of a legendary warrior. Patton's letters from earlier military campaigns in North Africa and Sicily, complemented by a powerful retrospective of his guiding philosophies, further reveal a man of uncompromising will and uncommon character, which made "Georgie" a household name in mid-century America. With a new introduction.

While researching an article on Gen. George S. Patton, Kevin M. Hymel made an astonishing discovery. Browsing the Library of Congress's Patton index, he found lists of photo albums. Opening one, he found photos Patton himself took during World War II, a gold mine of historical photographs of which even Blumenson, Patton's official biographer, was unaware.Patton photographed everything that interested him and produced tableaux of the battlefields of North Africa, Sicily, and continental Europe. For Patton, history was everything, and his Leica camera-standard issue for reporters and historians in the U.S. Army-ensured he could provide historians an accurate depiction of events, free from interpretation. His photographs depict the victorious face of war, with GIs on the move, military bridges under construction, and tanks slicing through the countryside. They show defeat as well-smashed German tanks, prisoners of war, and bodies strewn across the landscape. Moreover, they provide a record of where Patton fought, showcasing historic sights and the different terrain from North Africa to Europe. Now, for the first time, many of Patton's personal photographs are presented in one book for the reader to observe history as Patton saw it. Hymel provides background information and captions for the photographs and occasionally uses Patton's own words to describe the sights. Patton claimed his hobby once saved his life. Stopping to take a photograph in Italy, he witnessed a salvo of German shells exploding on the roadway up ahead, where he likely would have been had he not stopped. With "Patton's Photographs," readers can now view that life during the war through the eye of one of America's greatest commanders.